The
Garachi (
AzeriAzerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
:
Qaraçı), also spelled
Karachi or
Karaci, are a group of Romani people living in
AzerbaijanAzerbaijan , formally the Republic of Azerbaijan , is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south...
. Little research has been done on the Garachi, and most of what is known about them is based on the works of the 19th-century
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n scholars
Kerope PatkanovKerope Petrovich Patkanov was an Armenian scientist-orientalist, professor of Saint Petersburg University; in 1863 he obtained the master degree for his eastern literature study ; in 1864 he obtained the doctor degree in literature for "The Study of the Composition in the Armenian language".-...
and
Jean-Marie ChopinJean-Marie Chopin a Russian explorer of the Caucasus, of French origin, who visited Sevanavank in 1830 and reported about a regime without meat, wine, youth or women. Another explorer visited it in 1850 and reported that manuscripts were still being copied manually....
.
It is noteworthy that the term
Garachi is sometimes used to describe the Domari-speaking people of northern
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, who were previously thought to be of Romani stock.
The
Garachi (
AzeriAzerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
:
Qaraçı), also spelled
Karachi or
Karaci, are a group of Romani people living in
AzerbaijanAzerbaijan , formally the Republic of Azerbaijan , is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south...
. Little research has been done on the Garachi, and most of what is known about them is based on the works of the 19th-century
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n scholars
Kerope PatkanovKerope Petrovich Patkanov was an Armenian scientist-orientalist, professor of Saint Petersburg University; in 1863 he obtained the master degree for his eastern literature study ; in 1864 he obtained the doctor degree in literature for "The Study of the Composition in the Armenian language".-...
and
Jean-Marie ChopinJean-Marie Chopin a Russian explorer of the Caucasus, of French origin, who visited Sevanavank in 1830 and reported about a regime without meat, wine, youth or women. Another explorer visited it in 1850 and reported that manuscripts were still being copied manually....
.
It is noteworthy that the term
Garachi is sometimes used to describe the Domari-speaking people of northern
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, who were previously thought to be of Romani stock. The confusion is explained by the fact that both groups live in the regions populated mostly by
Azeri-speakersThe Azerbaijanis are an ethnic group mainly living in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Commonly referred to as Azeris/Āzarīs or Azeri Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to the Iranian plateau...
who apply the word
Garachi to all medieval collective migrants from the
Indian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a peninsula which extends southward into the Indian Ocean...
, including the Dom. For information on the Dom of Iran, see the article under
Dom peopleThe Dom of the Middle East are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group. Some authors relate them to the Domba people of India.They have a rich oral tradition and express their culture and history through music, poetry and dance...
.
Origins and history
Even though the Garachi of Azerbaijan call themselves
Dom (the name
Garachi was given to them by the local population and derives from the
AzeriAzerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
word
qara - "black" and the suffix
-çı denoting the stem-word's function/occupation), they do not seem to share same origins with the Dom people. According to Jean-Marie Chopin, the Azerbaijani Garachi descend from the medieval Romani nomads of
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
. In 1944, Vasily Yan suggested that the Garachi of Azerbaijan and the Dom of Iran (sometimes referred to as the Garachi) differ in terms of their origins.
In 1887, Kerope Patkanov stated that the Garachi of the
South CaucasusThe South Caucasus is a geopolitical region located on the border of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia also referred to as Transcaucasia, or The Transcaucasus...
(then part of the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
) numbered 2,399 people living mostly in the Goychay uyezd (present-day
GoychayGoychay is a rayon of Azerbaijan famous for its pomegranates. The average population density in the city equals to 140 persons per square km. The distance between Goychay rayon and capital Baku is 226 km. The rayon consists of a city and 55 villages...
,
UjarUjar is a rayon, or administrative district of Azerbaijan, situated to the south of Goycay, in the centre of the nation. This region contains the Ipek yolu Automobil line and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to the south of the Shirvan plain. There are 32 villages and 1 town in Ucar...
,
AgsuWebsitehttp://agsu-ih.gov.azAgsu is a raion in central Azerbaijan.-General Information:According to some sources that Agsu city was founded by Nadir Shah, in 1735. The remainders of that city is situated in the south of Agsu city. The name of the city is derived from “Agsuchay” which flow through...
, and
Ismayilliİsmayıllı is a city in and capitali of the Ismailli Rayon of Azerbaijan. Population 14,435 .- References :* – World-Gazetteer.com...
rayons of Azerbaijan) and
NakhichevanThe Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan. The region covers 5,363 km² and borders Armenia to the east and north, Iran to the south and west, and Turkey to the northwest...
. The largest Garachi settlement was named after them and is situated around 4km southeast of Khacmaz town in
KhachmazKhachmaz is a rayon of Azerbaijan.Khachmaz is 170 kilometres north of the capital Baku. The Khachmaz rayon borders the Republicof Dagestan of the Russian Federation....
region. Their main occupation was the production of household items such as baskets, sieves and chewing gum made by men and sold by women in the neighbouring towns. Among other sources of income Patkanov lists
fortune-tellingFortune-telling is the practice of predicting the future, usually of an individual, through mystical or supernatural means, and often for commercial gain...
and cattle
larcenyLarceny is a form of theft. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland...
. Nomadic Garachi groups used to train animals and make street song-and-dance performances. This practice was described in the famous 1913 story
Garaja giz ("Nigella") by the Azeri writer
Suleyman Sani AkhundovSuleyman Sani Akhundov was an Azerbaijani playwright, journalist, children's author, and teacher...
. The Garachi claim to adhere to Shia Islam but in reality are non-religious for the most part.
Language
Patkanov's analysis of the language of the Garachi (based on 101 common phrases) indicated that despite being
Indo-AryanThe Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family.SIL International in a 2005 estimate counted a total of 209 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani , Bengali , Punjabi , Marathi ,...
, it is not mutually intelligible with any of the
RomaniRomani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is the language of the Romani people. It is an Indo-Aryan language, sometimes included in either the "Central" or the "Northwestern" group, sometimes treated as a branch of its own.Romani is a macrolanguage in the ISO 639 classification, taken to consist of...
or
DomariDomari is an Indo-Aryan language, spoken by the Dom people across the Middle East, mainly in Iran and Egypt, but significant numbers of speakers are also found in India where they are known as Domba....
dialects of the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, or the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. In addition to it, the Garachi observed by Patkanov spoke Azeri and sometimes Tat as a second and third language respectively.
Present-day
Most Garachis nowadays are settled and live in communities in
YevlakhYevlakh is a small city in Azerbaijan, 265 km west of capital Baku. It is surrounded by, but administratively separate from, the rayon of the same name...
,
AgdashAgdash is a rayon in central Azerbaijan. Agdash rayon consists of Leki settlement and 72 villages. This rayon has a favorable economic and geographic location. Turyan River and Kura River along South-West border extend through the territory of the rayon. Upper Shirvan Channel also crosses Agdash...
, Gakh,
KhachmazKhachmaz is a rayon of Azerbaijan.Khachmaz is 170 kilometres north of the capital Baku. The Khachmaz rayon borders the Republicof Dagestan of the Russian Federation....
and
BakuBaku , sometimes known as Baqy, Baky, Baki or Bakou, is the capital, the largest city, and the largest port of Azerbaijan and all the Caucasus. Located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, the city consists of two principal parts: the downtown and the old Inner City...
suburbs numbering altogether around 2,000 people. Small communities in
ShushaShusha is a town in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus. It has been under the control of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic since its capture in 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War...
and
JabrayilJabrayil is a rayon of Azerbaijan. This region is now completely under the control of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, who have named it Jrakn, after capturing it during the Nagorno-Karabakh War...
were driven out by the Armenian forces during the
Nagorno-Karabakh WarThe Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan...
Nowadays the Garachi are undergoing cultural and linguistic assimilation by Azeris. Modern Garachi couples tend to have 2 to 3 children as opposed to 5 and above, as it was often the case throughout their history.